L'Atalante (also released as
Le Chaland qui passe) is a 1934 French film written and directed by
Jean Vigo and starring Michel Simon, Dita Parlo and Jean Dasté. In the film Dasté plays a captain who honeymoons with his new wife, Parlo, on a canal barge with the ship's first mate Père Jules (Michel Simon) and the cabin boy (Louis Lefebvre). The newlyweds struggle until Parlo leaves the boat to explore the sights of Paris, leading Dasté to abandon her until she is found by Père Jules and they are reunited.
After the difficult release of his controversial short
film
Zero for Conduct, Vigoinitially wanted to make a film about Eugène Dieudonné whom Vigo's father (famous anarchist Miguel Almereyda) had been associated with in 1913. After
Vigo and his producer Jacques-Louis Nounez struggled to find the right project for a feature film, Nounez finally gave
Vigo an unproduced screenplay by Jean Guinée about barge dwellers.
Vigo re-wrote the story with Albert Riéra and Nounez secured a distribution deal with the Gaumont Film Company with a budget of ₣1 million.
Vigo used many of the technicians and actors from
Zero for Conduct, such as cinematographer Boris Kaufman and actor Jean Dasté. He also worked with such established film stars as Michel Simon and Dita Parlo.
It has been hailed by many critics as one of the greatest films of all time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Atalante
